Monday, December 08, 2008

Lepisto's Tough Time

Sami Lepisto's time at the big league started off well enough. He had an assist in his first two games and was a +1 in each game. Since then, it has been hard to be Lepisto. In his last five games he has had 2 more assists but was a -4 with 6 PIMs.

He was taken advantage off when the opposition started to forecheck him. Lepisto's control of the puck in his own zone may have been the reason he is sent packing back to Hershey as one Caps' defender looks ready to suit it up again.

I pulled together Lepisto's lowlight reel. One of the many problems Lepisto had was controlling the puck in his own zone and recovering when he did lose the puck. While making mistakes is nothing new to the Capitals, allowing the other team gain momentum from those mistakes seems to hurt the Caps especially on the road.

The first lowlight was in the Islander game where Lepisto may have been on the ice for too long. Apart of the powerplay squad, he was on the ice for a bit longer then he probably should have been when Andy Sutton left the penalty box. Sami seemed to have it under control until Sutton (not known for his offensive prowess) wrestled the puck away from Lepisto and found the open Trent Hunter in front of the net:

The next lowlight was Lepisto's misassignment on the first Carolina goal. He gave up on the play letting not one, but two Hurricanes get around Jose Theodore. You can also fault Bryan Helmer here too as he was out of the play in front of the net:

The last lowlight was in the same game against the Hurricanes. It's the game winning goal where Lepisto just lost control of the puck (again, behind the net). He could have dumped off the glass or ring it around the boards. But he loses control and the goal was the back breaker for the Caps in Raleigh:

These make the top lowlights as they lead directly to goals. It is clear that Sami Lepisto has some things to work on. Even though is was one of the first called up, his play at this level also made him the first sent back down.

The up side for Lepisto's demise is a replacement of an injured player back in the line up. That could be Mike Green or Tom Poti. We will probably know more at tomorrow's morning skate.

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